THE TURE ECW LOOK, 18 May 2005

This is a no holds barred look at the wrestling company that changed the landscape of wrestling for good. In a near 3 Hours Documentary (Yes 3 Full Hours) Paul Heyman, Tommy Dreamer, Nunzio, Rhino, Vince Mcmahon, Mick Foley and Others talk about the 8 years Paul E run the company and push the envlope so far - Feauting the High points like Barley Legal the company first PPV, creating The BWO, making people like Raven, Tommy Dreamer, RVD, Sabu, Al Snow, Public Enemy, Micky Whipwreck and others and the fan suppor and loyalty to the ECW brand. It also talks about Low Points the death of an underage kid - 17 he was - (Which cost them the Barely Legal PPV for a while.) , The crucifixion which angered guest Kurt Angle. Going national on tv and losing Taz and the Dudleys to the WWE, and it slow painful death with fans who still care for the company. Your Laugh, Cry, wonder how the WCW Eric Bischoff got on this DVD - (I wish Bischoff would say he did nick alot of ECW stuff.) Your see the most personal shoot promo ever and Paul Heyman debut on WWE Raw. But that only half of this 2Disc set covered.

Disc 2

The Matches

Match 1 - The ECW Tag team Titles
Raven And Stevie Richards (C) VS The Pitbulls
8/10
A bloody match featuing a Dreamer attack, A catfight and the biggest SuperPowerbomb Ever.

Match 2
Rey Mysterio Jr VS Psicosis 2/3 Falls Match
8/10
A great rivalry taken to the Exterme.

Match 3 The ECW Title Match - Ladder Match
Micky Whipwreck VS The Sandman (C)
7/10
It gets this becuse of Steve Austin great Promo
A different kind of Ladder match.

Match 4 The ECW TV Title Match
Sabu VS 2 Cold Scorpio (C)
9 1/2/10
A 30 Minute Wresting Classic as 2 of the best high flyers collide watch out for SABU sick table move.

Match 5 - Feauting Alt Commentary with Dreamer and Coach
Tommy Dreamer VS Raven
9/10
The last great battle in this rivalry with Jerry Lawler coming to the ECW Arena at the end and nearly causing a riot.

Match 6 - The ECW TV Title Feauting Alt Commentary with Michael Cole and Taz
Taz (C) VS Bam Bam Bigelow
8/10
Bigelow in front of his home town crowd look to beat Taz - (the answer to Taz question at the end of the Alt Commentary is Dayton Ohio Heatwave 98 that was his next match with Bigelow.)

Match 7 The ECW TV Title Feauting Alt Commentary with Michael Cole and Rob Van Dam The Whole F'N Show.
Rob Van Dam VS Jerry Lynn
10/10
The Best Match on this DVD and Proof that the WWE is underusing RVD as Mr PPV and Jerry Lynn tear the house down in a epic match up.

There also piece from Stevie Richards,Chris Jerchio and Taz.

This is a DVD ever Wrestling fan should own. ECW will live forever in my Heart as a Wrestling fan and if a see an ECW wreslter at a show I will proudly chant ECW! ECW! ECW!.

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Eulogy Cynically Worked, 16 Jun 2005

By	Mr. Od Smith "d2kvirus" (Coulsdon, Surrey) - See all my reviews

This is a problem that comes up time and again throughout, such as showing a clip of Bischoff's first night on Raw when talking about how unlikely some events were, which also assumes the viewer can't pay attention for two minutes. There's also the problem that everything has to be in five minute chapters, be it the segments on Raven, The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Terry Funk, The Dudleys, the bWo or Cactus Jack, the very first pay per view, the NWA title double-cross or the New Jack/Mass Transit incident. In other words, the three year long feud between Raven and Tommy Dreamer gets as much coverage (in fact less) than Paul Heyman as announcer on Raw. This happens time and again and gets very annoying as it skews the whole story of ECW as much as how they miss key details - they only have Mikey Whipwreck in his early days, not latter ECW where he was anything other than the Crash Holly template, for instance.

However, the people they get in to talk about ECW gives a lot of insight and detail, and not always intentionally. The main bonus is Paul Heyman talking about everything that went into ECW and what he was giving every day to keep it running, and a lot of his opinions about rival companies and the wrestling business, reminding us why it's a damn shame all he's done in WWE recently is manage Heidenreich. Tommy Dreamer also gives a lot of insight, as do Taz and Buh Buh Ray Dudley (I'm using the ECW spellings, OK?), and Chris Jericho is also entertaining when interviewed. However, all the interviewees are on WWE contract, so it misses a lot of insight - for example, Raven has spoken about ECW in shoot interviews, yet wasn't included.

On the other side, the rivals also get a forum, which says plenty without them saying it. Eric Bischoff comes across as a real slimeball, Jerry Lawler even worse (and anyone who's watched Memphis Wrestling on The Wrestling Channel will agree he shouldn't comment about other federations and their quality without watching his), but the pick of the bunch is Vince McMahon himself. Your jaw will drop when he says that he was surprised that ECW collapsed having stolen their World and Tag Team champions (Taz and The Dudleys), so I guess that he's also surprised when all the top wrestlers on Smackdown go to Raw, the former show suffers?

Yet the problem that comes over is that the DVD is selectively edited, and much of it is clearly cobbled together from the Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero DVDs. For example, they try and make out that in the last year or so of ECW, only Rob Van Dam was keeping the show together - in other words, writing out the contributions of Rhino, Jerry Lynn, Steve Corino and Justin Credible, and also make out Steve Austin was actually bigger in the promotion that he actually was.

This pro WWE angle is continued in some of the matches on disco two. For example, the Mikey Whipwreck/Sandman match is only included as Austin cuts a promo at the start of the match and Cactus Jack comes out at the end and Raven/Dreamer due to Jerry Lawler's appearance. Yes, there are some great matches there, Sabu/2 Cold Scorpio is worth watching, and the RVD/Jerry Lynn match is a classic, albeit already available on the Extreme Evolution collection, which many ECW fans will already own. Also, the second commentaries aren't that much - Dreamer and Jonathan Coachman on the Raven/Dreamer match is appalling, RVD and Michael Cole on the RVD/Lynn match average, but Taz and Cole on Taz/Bam Bam Bigelow (with the breaking ring spot) is not bad, but all in all you should stick with Joey Styles anyway. There's also a few interesting stories that didn't make the main disc from Taz, Jericho and Stevie Richards, all of which are more insightful than whatever Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross think they're contributing.

In the end, this set has a lot of things to recommend about it, but only the material that isn't being WWE'd into submission, most notably Paul Heyman's huge contribution that's honest, uncensored and from the heart and soul, but as soon as a member of WWE or WCW management come along to contribute, they try and make the product look lesser to the McMahon empire, which says all you need to know about the people running the show, and indeed the ECW One Night Stand.

However, the last thing to remember is that the respect they pay to ECW is as such that the title menu theme is now accompanying Matt Morgan to the ring. Again, what isn't said is all the more interesting.

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